Bedtime stories
by Ember411
Summary: Evie and Doug's daughter wants a bedtime story from Doug about how he and Evie met. Although not the best story teller, he does it for the little girl with Evie's beautiful smile.
1. Chapter 1

Doug had never thought of himself as a story teller. Even with three children now he still had no idea how to tell a good story. The last time he tried to tell a story he ended up making up a story that literally was so long that his second son, Marco, had gotten up to go play with his older brother to avoid the boring story. His first son, William, wasn't too interested in bedtime stories unless it was from a book after Doug tried to tell him a bedtime story. Evie was a much better story teller to the boys and whenever they asked for one, Evie would be in their room in a second and start telling them a magical story.

With it came to the third child, Dasha, it was only Doug that had to tell a story. He curses hatred on the soul of Hunter Huntsman, the son of the hunter who was hired to kill Snow White but realized that he couldn't bring himself to do so. Hunter was the same way, but one night was very different for him and he did a horrible thing.

He took Evie from this world.

Dasha born from a c-section because of the accident. She never got a chance to meet her mother and she would never know, from Evie's own mouth, how happy she was about Dasha. How excited she was when she learned she was pregnant for a third time. How overjoyed she was to hear the heartbeat. How even more overjoyed she was to learn she was finally getting a girl she had dreamed of since she and Doug married (and her childhood too). Dasha would never know how beautiful her mother was in person. She'd never know that her mother smelled like a million roses every single day. She'd never know the sound of her lyrically, soft voice in person and not on a stupid video and she'd never hear her mother say, "I love you, Dashy," every single day.

* * *

It was hard for Doug. He was glad to have Dasha but he missed Evie. What he hated the most was he was hoping Dasha would have her mother's hair color or eye color, or even both, but like her older bothers; Dasha had Doug's hair color and his eye color. Dasha was a very, very beautiful little girl. The fairest in the universe.

As Dasha got older Doug saw two things in her that were Evie. Dasha's wavy locks of hair and that beautiful smile that Doug loved so much on his late wife. It looked so much like Evie's grin that he cried a few times after Dasha would leave the room, because Evie's beautiful smile was gone from him.

Over the six years Doug had learned to be a single parent. He had his friends help of course when he needed it and he loved seeing his boys very happy and healthy since their mother died. William was ten and Marco was six when Evie passed away.

Now the sixteen year old and twelve year old both made sure to spend time with their little sister at least for an hour every day. Even if it meant dressing up in play clothes and wearing necklaces and rings and feather hats for pretend tea parties. Doug remembered the day that William and Marco convinced their five closest female friends to come over and have a tea party with Dasha and her friends. Eventually the boys parted ways when all the girls decided to paint their toenails and fingernails and discuss girly-things.

* * *

On Dasha's sixth birthday she had all her girl friends over and they did a bunch of girly things with her auntie Mal, who held the party at her castle with Ben since Doug's house would be a little to small for all the girls. Dasha had on a very pretty blue dress with a sequin belt and gold tiara. She looked a little bit like Evie that day.

Later that night Doug entered the little girls room and saw the blue nightgown clad girl using her new silver hair brush to brush her wavy hair. "Dashy, time for bed."

"Okay daddy." Dasha said. She put the brush down and walked over to her bed where Doug stood. Doug lifted the girl onto the bed and laid her down then covered her with the warm blankets. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight princess." He said said.

"Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"Can I have a bedtime story? Pretty, pretty please?" She asked sweetly.

"From which book?"

"Not from a book."

Crap. Doug hasn't told a bedtime story in over eight years. "Sure." He said though. He couldn't refuse his only daughter a story. "What story?"

Without having to think Dasha said, "A story about mommy."

"Which story?"

"I don't know. How about when you met mommy and what she was like and stuff." Dasha suggested.

Well, that couldn't be too hard. "Okay Dashy." He sat on her bed near her feet. Dasha sat up and went to sit on Doug's lap instead.

"Once upon a time Uncle Ben had decided that his first act as King was to have some children come to Auradon Prep. He picked mommy, auntie Mal, uncle Carlos and uncle Jay to come to Auradon and live here."

"Where did mommy and them live before?"

"On an island."

"Why?"

"Because that's where their parents lived." Doug answered. Evie's mother wasn't at all interested to be involved with Evie's life after she learned that Doug was the son of Dopey and therefore not a prince. Evie decided then to not even refer her mother as grandma. "Their parents did some pretty bad things and uncle Ben's mommy and daddy told them and a lot of other bad people they had to live there. Well they lived there and so mommy, auntie Mal, uncle Carlos and uncle Jay were born there."

"Okay."

"When mommy first came to Auradon she and your auntie and uncles were a shocked, because their old homes weren't as happy and not friendly to anyone."

"Were they friendly?"

"Yes." Doug said. They were sort of friendly, in their own evil-like ways. "I met mommy when I was telling her what her classes were at the school and the second I saw her, I thought she was the most beautiful princess in the world. I was pretty excited to learn I shared a class with her too. Chemistry." Dasha giggled at that. "What's funny?"

"Auntie Mal says that you and mommy have great chemistry, she found it ironic that you and mommy shared that and a class named it too."

"Yeah, that's pretty funny isn't it?" Doug laughed. "Well mommy wasn't so interested in dating me at the time but I still liked her a whole bunch. When she got upset about something I tried to cheer her up." Doug told her. He held back about the time Chad had forced Doug to not speak to Evie, after the meltdown on Parent's Day. "It was at the end of Uncle Ben's birthday that I asked mommy out and she said yes." Doug said. "How's that for a story?"

"Keep going." Dasha said.

"Keep going?"

"Yeah. Keep going." Dasha smiled.

Can't say no to that Evie smile.

"So mommy and I, at the age of sixteen—because that's the age you are suppose to date and not a day earlier— began dating and we dated throughout high school."

"What 'bout after? Did you stay together after?"

"Well...no, not really. Mommy thought it would be best to break up because we were going to different schools for college. She was going to Auradon University and I was going to another school over three hundred sixty miles away. I didn't want too break up with her and I told her we would always be together." Dasha's smiled went away. "But by Christmas, mommy couldn't stand being alone and only wanted me so we got back together." Doug said. It was actually Valentine's Day when she wanted to get back together, but he needed it to be sooner for Dasha to bring back the smile.

"Four months is a long time, daddy."

Six months is longer and more horrible! "I know. So mommy and I stayed together from that point forward and the day she graduated college was the night I proposed to mommy."

"Was she pretty at the wedding?"

"Mommy was very pretty at the wedding. Mommy had designed her own wedding dress, veil, shoes and jewlery for the wedding. She was the most prettiest bride out of all the brides in the world."

Dasha giggled. "I'm telling Audrey."

Dough laughed. "No silly, even Audrey agreed to mommy's beauty. We got married on that wonderful April tenth night."

"When did you guys have Willy?"

"Well...we were going to wait a year, but Willy decided to join mommy and I seven months later." Doug blushed. Okay, so they did things before marriage. But hey, if they waited any longer than they wouldn't of had this William! It'd be some other William! "He wanted to be born a little bit earlier than other babies."

"Where do babies come from?" Dasha wondered.

"That's a different bedtime story." Doug said. "Time for bed, Dashy."

"No, keep going. Tell me about mommy having me."

"Come on Dashy, it's bed time." Doug said. He really didn't want to go into details about that.

"No!" Dasha yelled. "I want to know about my time with mommy!"

Doug felt like he wouldn't win with her, so he just decided to tell her as child-friendly as possible. "Mommy was so happy to learn she was pregnant again for a third time. When we left the doctors she made me pull over to a store and inside she bought lavender paint."

"Why?"

"Because she felt like she was having a girl and instead of the usual pink she wanted to be different and went for lavender." Doug said. That was true. Evie was convienced that the color lavender was very light blue, her color, and very light pink, a usual girl color, made lavender. "And when she learned you were going to be a girl she was over joyed to the moon and back to have a girl."

"Did she think of my name?"

"In a way, yes." Doug smiled. Evie wanted a beautiful name for her beautful girl and no matter how hard she looked for girl names that sounded beautiful, looked beautiful or meant beautiful (Belle, Bella, ect) she never found one. He recalled the night that Dasha's name was made.

* * *

 _Doug and Evie were on their couch one night laying down at opposite ends. Doug was rubbing Evie's feet as she went through a list of girl names._

 _"Doug I can't find a good name for her!"_

 _"Evie, she'll have a beautiful name no matter what."_

 _"But this could be our last child and I really want a good name her our daughter. A beautiful name for a beautiful little girl. It has to be beautiful! It has to be wonderful like her brothers names are dashing."_

 _"Why don't we call her Dashelle than? Like Dashell, but an 'E' at the end?" Doug laughed. "Or how about...Dasha."_

 _Evie smiled. "Dasha." She repeated. "That's a beautiful name! Nobody else has a name like that!"_

 _"I...was kidding." Doug said dumbfounded. He personally found the name stupid. He just made it up on the spot. At least Dashelle sounded better. "Dasha is—"_

 _"Going to be a beautiful girl with a beautiful name!" Evie smiled. "You are the smartest man on this planet, Doug! You deserve an award!"_

 _"An award?" Doug questioned._

 _"It'll be in the bedroom. Go in there in about ten minutes." Evie winked as she got off the couch and waddled to the stairs. Doug laughed, he knew what that meant._

* * *

"I like Dasha." Dasha smiled.

"Me too." Doug said.

"What happened to mommy?"

Doug thought quickly for a simple answer. "Mommy wasn't feeling good one night. She had a bad headache and was sick, so she wanted to go out for a walk..." Doug paused when he thought of what to say next. It would be too tragic for Dasha, he thought. "But she still wasn't feeling good so she went to the hospital."

"Was it me? Did I do something?"

"No." Doug said quickly. "You didn't do a thing. Mommy was just very sick. An angel came to her and said she could help her get better."

Dasha was smart enough to know what that meant. "Couldn't the doctors help her like they helped me when I fell out of that tree last year and broke my left arm?"

"They tried everything they could, but nothing was working for them." Doug said. "Only the angel could help mommy."

"But...I was still in mommy's tummy." Dasha said.

"The angel knew that. So the angel said she would pick you up from mommy's tummy, just like she placed you in there."

"An angel put me in mommy's tummy? Cool."

"Yeah totally." Doug agreed. "Mommy wanted to stay here with you and your brothers and I, but she would be in a lot of pain if she stayed here with us."

"I wouldn't want mommy to be hurt all the time."

"Me either, Dashy. So mommy said she would go with the angel, just as long as mommy was the one to be our guardian angel."

"What's that?"

"A guardian angel? She's an angel that watches over the special people that she loves. Mommy is watching over us all the time." Doug said. Smiling he added, "Sometimes if your real quiet and there is no other sound around you can sometimes hear a faint voice singing and that's mommy singing."

"Really?"

"Yes." Doug said. "She had a real pretty voice when she sang."

"Do you miss mommy?"

"I do. But when I look at your bothers and you, I see mommy every day." Doug told her. "Whenever William gets angry, he places his hands on his hips and sort of angerily taps his foot on the ground in place and huffs out once. When Marco is baking he is always trying to mix new ideas together just like mommy whenever she baked. Baking was like chemistry for her, except she could eat it. Marco also likes to clean and mommy loved cleaning too. When you smile, Dasha, I see mommy smile all the time." Dasha smiled at that comment. "There. That's mommy's big smile. And your hair is wavy like mommy's hair too."

"What does mommy look like?"

"I've shown you pictures."

"I know, but I wanna hear it." She said.

"Mommy had large, brown eyes that make people melt in love with them. Mommy's hair was sort of a wavy, curly style and was black-and-blue toned. It was really beautiful too." Doug said.

"You said mommy made her own wedding dress? Did she make her own clothes all the time too?"

"She did." Doug said. "Same with shoes and jewelry." Then an idea came into his head. Evie had wanted to save it for Dasha's sixteenth birthday, but Doug felt like now was a good time too. "Stay here Dasha."

Doug got up and left his daughter's room and went into his room down the hall. He walked into the closet and took a box from the top shelf. It was a box that was similar to the bag Evie used in high school. He opened the box and took out a couple of things before putting the box back on the top shelf for safe keeping. Doug returned to Dasha's room and sat back down. He held up a photo of Evie when she was nine months pregnant, taken two weeks before Dasha as born.

"See this Dasha? This is right before you were born." Doug held out the picture. It was Evie standing in an angle in front of the newly put up Christmas tree. She had on a beautiful blue dress that was simple. She was smiling at the camera while William and Marco were decorating the tree, possibly implying that Evie was supervising the boys and making sure the tree didn't knock over.

"That's me in mommy's tummy?" The little girl asked.

"Yep. That's you in mommy's belly." Doug said. "She never liked having her picture taken when she was pregnant with any of you guys, but this is the only picture she loved the most out of the three times she had you and your brothers."

Doug reached into his back pocket and pulled out one more thing. "And this is your gift from mommy." Doug held up a necklace. Not just any necklace, Evie's necklace with the red ruby in the middle. "She wanted to give this to you on your sixth birthday."

Dasha's eyes sparkled when she saw the necklace. "That's pretty, daddy" She grinned. Doug handed her the necklace and she held it in her hands. "Did mommy make this?"

"No. It was her birthday gift when she turned six." Doug said. At least that was true. Evie got it as a gift early in the morning of Evie's birthday, before the meltdown between Evil Queen and Maleficent at the actual party.

"It's...pretty." Dasha yawned between the two words. A large yawn.

"Time for bed, Dashy." Doug said as he took the necklace and put it on her table stand next to her bed. "You can try it on tomorrow."

"Okay." Dasha said and crawled back under the covers. Doug covered her back up. "Daddy? Willy and Marco said that you tell bad stories. I think they're wrong. You tell really good stories, daddy."

"Thanks Dashy," Doug said. He kissed her forehead once more. "Goodnight princess. I love you."

"Love you too." Dasha smiled as she rested against the pillow case.

Doug turned off the lights right before leaving the room, turning back to see Dasha still in the process of falling asleep and her nightlight shining next to her. He left the door a crack open for Dasha to find if she needed to use the bathroom during the night.

* * *

Doug checked on Dasha while later around midnight. Still sound asleep. Doug walked over to tuck her in a bit and saw her wearing Evie's necklace and the photo of Evie held in her arm along with Dasha's play doll. Doug smiled as he pulled the covers up a bit more, brushed back some of her hair then left the room for the rest of the night. Even asleep, Dasha somehow managed to look like Evie.

* * *

 **Up next is a short little epilogue.**

 **How was this?**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm sorry for such a long update! I literally had this chapter written on my old laptop, but then it broke and I didn't save my stuff. So I had to re-write all my work.**

 **So this was suppose to be the epilogue, but it was like ten pages long, so I've had to edit it and make them shorter. And split them up.**

* * *

Doug stayed up for a few more hours working on some last minute chemistry tests. Around three in the morning Doug felt the need to sleep. He had to wake up at six thirty (which actually meant he woke up at six forty). Without caring to throw pajamas on Doug took his glasses off, grabbed a frame with Evie's picture on it and crawled into his tiny bed of six years for a good sleep.

* * *

Doug opened his eyes and found himself back at Auradon Prep. He was in the familiar outside lunch scenery that he liked to eat on warm, sunny days at school. The smell of the grass was just so real and the cool breeze was just cool enough to make it cold, but not jacket or sweater weather cold. He was all alone. Or so he thought.

"Doug." A singsong, lyrical voice called out from behind.

Doug knew that voice. He turned around on his feet and nearly fell in shock at the sight in front of him. There was an angel in front of him.

"Evie!"

Evie stood at their picnic table, the same blue table they sat at when Evie held up her test to him—the same test that Doug had managed to let her take after Chad told the professor about the mirror cheating tool, by telling the professor she was just looking for an extra pencil. And where they both agreed to meet up at some point and study for the next test.

Evie smiled and waved at Doug. She had this beautiful dress on too. A beautiful royal blue strapless dress, but a black sheer shirt underneath with the sleeves reaching her elbows. She also had on a green glitter crop jacket. The dress had a black wide belt that was held with a silver butterfly in front. Evie had black leggings on, but she also wore knee high blue socks, and her shoes were blue zebra print. Evie also had this illuminating glow around her presence.

She was still beautiful to Doug. She always has, always will.

"Hi Doug." Evie said sweetly. She beckoned him over.

Doug was there in a second, after tripping over his own feet a couple of times on his bare feet. "Evie!" He said out of breathe, but grinning ear to ear. "You're...you're..."

"Here?" She giggled. "Of course I'm here." She then stood there, hands on her hips and smiling. After a couple of moments Evie spoke up again. "Well, aren't you going to hug me?"

Dough paused for a moment; he was still in shock that Evie was here with him. When she asked him if he was going to hug her, he snapped out of it. "Oh...OH!" Doug said loudly. He embraced Evie into a hug, maybe holding her a bit tightly than he ever would. But, come one, it's been _years_ for the man.

Evie had a feeling Doug would be like this, so she had no care that he was squeezing her to death. Evie hugged him a little bit more gentle yet still firm. She missed hugging this wonderful man. It was because of him that Evie realized everyone doesn't have to be an actual prince or princess to be so special. She giggled a little bit when Doug lifted her off the ground a bit and spun her around gently, she loved that.

"Evie." Doug murmured into her ears. He kept her close to him, he missed this lovely warmth.

Evie kept her forehead against his, eye to eye, but leaned up and kissed him on the lips, letting it linger for a couple of minutes. "Hello my love," She said. Doug smiled.

"I miss you."

"I miss you too Doug. I miss Willy, Markie and my princess." She added. Doug laughed. "What?"

"William hates being called Willy. His only exception to that is for Dasha."

"He's always going to be my Willy." Evie laughed. "He's my Willy, Marco is my Markie and Dasha is my princess. You, daddy, doing a fantastic job with this single parenthood." Doug frowned. "What's wrong?"

"You're suppose to be here. With me. With the boys. With Dasha."

"I'm there. You just can't see me."

"I mean physically there. Hanging out with the boys and playing dress up with Dasha," Doug said, then looked at her with a questionable face. "Speaking of which, what are you wearing? This looks...familiar."

"Oh this?" Evie looked down. "I'm not too much of a fan of the shoes because they go with nothing on this outfit and this jacket should be black or blue. But," She grinned. "I saw Dasha draw a picture of me once, and she had me in this outfit. She told her teddy bear that she would be my personal stylist."

Doug laughed. "Well, she sure has your style with a wild punch to it."

"Oh I'm so excited to see how that will work when she gets older." Evie said.

"So is this the only reason you came to see me? To tell me I'm doing OK?"

"No, I said you are doing _fantastic_. Don't doubt yourself mister."

"So, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to give you a message."

"A message?"

"Yes."

Doug lifted an eyebrow up. What sort of message was Evie going to give him, if it wasn't about his single parenting life? Oh, he could guess a few things.

"Evie, is this about that story I told Dashy? I know I lied about a few things in the story, like us getting back together at Christmas and not Valentine's Day and _obviously_ about the reason why William seemed to be born early when, in truth, things just—"

"No no, that's not it." Evie said. "That's fine. A few white lies here and there aren't bad. And they made Dasha smile. It's something else."

"What is it?"

"I need you to move on." Evie told him.

"WHAT!?" Doug said a bit loudly, almost maybe barking at Evie.

"You need to move on." She told him again.

"Are-are you _insane_ Evie?" He looked at his late wife like she had ten heads. "Move on!? _Move on!?_ "

"I know it's going to be hard. But you need to move on with life. Get out of that bubble." Evie explained.

"Evie, I've moved on."

"No you haven't Doug. You're still in the same place six years ago."

"Evie, I've done everything on my own." Doug defended his words. "The kids are doing good."

"Doug, the boys have accepted my death and moved on. Dasha is a very happy little girl. I know, though, she's going to need her daddy around her a lot in the near future."

"Huh?"

"She's doing fine now. But every little girl needs a mommy or mommy figure. Sure, she has her Auntie Mal, but when Mal isn't around like to talk to or whatever and _you_ are around than Dasha is going to need her daddy."

"Wait, you're telling me to _move on_ so that I can be Dashy's best friend?"

"Sort of, yes." Evie told him in a matter-of-fact tone. "And I don't like that nickname. Dashy."

Doug smiled. "Dashy loves it."

"I know. Her loving her nickname is the only reason I'm sane with that name." Evie smiled. "But you need to be there for her, and the boys, as they're getting older. I'll be there too but you need to be there with me. You have to start moving on."

Doug frowned. Was she saying, what she sounded like she was saying. "Evie, I'm not going to replace you."

"I don't suggest that silly. Plus, I can't be replace. I can never be replaced. You can date again though, I'm perfectly fine with you dating another woman. Even getting married."

"Evie I-"

"Would you really like me to be alone forever if this were the other way around?" Evie lifted her pretty eyebrow up. Doug knew the answer. He would _never_ want Evie to be alone. "Exactly. But I'm not talking about dating, I'm talking about _you_ moving on. For yourself mainly. The children are okay. You need to move on yourself. Once you've done that than everything will pace out nicely."

"What if I can't?"

"Baby step." Evie said. "And want to know what the first step is?"

"Sure."


	3. Chapter 3

"Hunter? You know him?" Evie asked.

Darkness took over Doug. Of course he remembered Hunter. That stupid, dumb ass, idiot. He ruined Doug's life. The kids lives. He killed Evie's life. He took her away too soon. It was _not_ her time to go yet. "Hunter." He muttered darkly.

"Doug, be nice." Evie said. "I need you to forgive him."

"WHAT!?" Doug hollered at the top of his lungs. Maybe he heard wrong. He prayed he heard wrong.

"Forgive Hunter." Evie repeated.

"H-how...what?"

"Doug, please listen."

"No! I don't want too!" Doug said as if he were a child being told he had to go to the dentist. Or the doctors. Or kiss his aunt that looked like a clown (how in the hell Uncle Sneezy liked that woman was beyond the boy)

"Dougie, please." Evie said in a plea tone. Doug knew that tone, he had to shut up and listen. "Once you have forgiven him for the accident than everything will roll out in it's own time."

"Evie, how...how WILD can you be to even think that!?" Doug yelled. He rarely yelled this much. "How can I do that?"

"Well—"

"No! I can't do that! How can _you_ say that to me!? Do _you_ have any idea how hard it was for me to just even get over the fact!"

"What fact?"

"YOU KNOW WHICH FACT!"

"Doug, if you keep yelling at me like this I'm just going to go." Evie said. Hands on her hips and her foot tapping the grass.

Doug kept silent, but his blood kept boiling very high.

Evie continued. "Doug I realize all the pain that Hunter has caused you. But you have to know this in order to forgive him."

"What is it?"

"Hunter feels guilty."

"He should."

"Douglas!"

"Sorry, I'll listen."

"Hunter feels guilty. Every single second of his day in that jail cell he feels guilty. He feels terrible that he took away a life, almost two lives in one night. He plays the memory over and over again of the police coming to his house and charging him with my hit-and-run accident, then being charged with killing me. When he was in that court room and the lawyer pulled up pictures of the children; William, Marco and newborn Dasha, I know you didn't see it but Hunter let out a few tears. His lullaby every night since the accident has been his sobbing and asking me for forgiveness for his drunk driving killing me. Doug, there had been times when Hunter has been able to get drugs given to him and he's overdosed. They've saved him, but the next time he tries it he'll end up on medical watch for a couple of months, but he'll act it out that he's fine and then the next time he overdoses he won't be lucky."

Doug listened to her words. He knew that Hunter had to have some guilt in him, but the thought of Hunter attempting to take his own life never crossed Doug's mind. He never thought how angry, depressed and guilty Hunter was at himself for taking Evie out of this world.

"You have to forgive him. I've already forgiven him. It took about a week, but I forgave him." She smiled sweetly.

"Wow, a week?"

"You learn a lot about forgiveness when you die. You see an overview of your life growing up and learn a lot about forgiveness." Evie told him. "I know it's going to be super tough but after the first step, it'll get so much easier."

"I-I don't know if I can."

Evie eyeballed him up and down, studying him, and then smiled. "Doug, I forgive you."

"Huh?"

"I forgive you. I forgive you for being so angry at me." She explained.

Doug stared at her with wide eyes. "I'm not angry with you."

Evie grinned but rolled her eyes. "You're not angry with me for getting up in the middle of the night to take a walk and maybe stop by the store down the street?"

"No." He replied rapidly.

Evie let out a small laugh. "Doug, don't lie to me. I know you were angry with me."

"I wasn't—"

Evie then, magically changing her voice to sound like Doug, said, "Damn it Evie! I told you HUNDREDS of time that if you need something from the store at one in the morning, I will go get it! I will drive to the store and go get it!" She said. Then, in her normal voice she said, "You were telling me that when I was in the hospital bed, just minutes after the doctor announced that I was brain dead."

Doug stood in surprise. No, Evie was dead. There was no way she could know his exact words. Then again, she was an angel at that point. "I-I was upset. But I-"

"You were angry. I know. I was angry at myself too for not listening to you. I did that throughout all my pregnancies—waking up in the middle of the night and walking to the store to get ice cream or whatever. I was angry at myself and I'm still angry with myself for doing that. I mean, out of all the times I did that, this one time I did it again and this happened? It's wild and seems only like a movie.

"But Doug, I'm not mad at _you_ any more. I know you were just very upset about it all and I know that you'll forgive me one day."

"Evie-"

"You're just annoyed now." She said. "I know that too. Don't worry, I'm fine with you being annoyed."

"No! I forgive you! I mean, yes, there are a few days when I'm annoyed and a few days when I'm just...so pissed at you. But I know that you've done that throughout all your pregnancies. But I forgive you. I really do."

Evie smiled at him.

"Evie, what's that got to do with forgiveness to Hunter?"

"Was it easy to forgive me at first?"

"No."

"But you eventually did, right"

"Um...yes?"

"Was it hard to forgive me?"

"Uh...yes."

"But after you did, it was easy?"

"Yes."

"Same thing with having to forgive Hunter. It'll be hard but once it's done with, than everything will fall into place of happiness. Hunter will feel less guilty and you will be able to move on."

"But I can't—"

Evie took hands with Doug. "Doug, please do this for me." She gave him large, puppy eyes. "I know this is going to be tough but please do this." She looked straight into his eyes. "Do you trust me?"

"More than anything." Doug replied, staring directly back into her brown eyes.

"Trust me on this then." She said. "Forgive Hunter."

Doug sighed. But he trusted Evie with his life. Doug looked into her eyes and smiled. "Okay," He said. "I'll forgive him."

"Good." Evie laughed. "Come here."

Evie pulled Doug into a kiss, which Doug took in quickly. Evie kept her arms wrapped around his back and Doug had one hand on her waist and the other brushing her blue-black hair down. They kissed for a long time before Evie pulled out, but Doug kept their faces close.

"I love you Doug."

"I love you, Evie."


End file.
